The long way home

Boy picking up bottles on his styro raft.

With Viraj Singh in Bombay.

The haunting Banganga tank in Bombay. It's a satellite body of the Ganges.

Deity in Bombay.

At the little elephant temple.

Elisa on Karnataka coast.

I found my balance on a cliff of somewhere on the Karnataka coast. I'm not saying where since I'd like to keep coming back to these little paradise beaches over my lifetime, and hope they don't turn into Varkalas.

A theater artist named John Vekkan invited me for dinner. he's an important figure in Malayalam theater. His son is studying art at the college.

As (one of my) birthday gifts, I get a dragon painted on my arm by Sm

Communist Kerala

With Shivaji Pannikar- controversial art critic, we had great conversations.

Nandakumar

talking to Shiek who is indeed a very erudite man.

Eminent artists and art historians Gulam Muhammed Sheik and Nandakumar are giving lectures at the Seminar on "Intervisualities"

Elisa's new friend Teenu.

Nidu is an arti student and made this installation about the seasons.

"The happy family"

A student's artwork on the theme of water.

with traditional dancers who teach at the college, following their performance.

post fire-dance

post fire-dance

One evening the students invite us to a tribal firedance. The energy is out of control.

the finished "randals' before they are hung and the space cleaned.

Anil's friend Abdul Azad is a local photographer living in Kochi.

With the musicians who played classical Carnatic music for the happening.

With another Anil- he was the student leader of the powerful student group

With more students

With students amid good feeling after our Happening.

Me and Anil following tour big "Happening"

One day working on the project the students brought in many coconut leaves and we wove them together for the roofs of the lanterns.

Zizke is speaking in Ernakulum closeby and we go to see him call for a new Communist beginning, and to shed light on the extent of Capitalist ideology that permeated life.

Convergent with my being at the college is a seminar called Transtrends. Students made this sculpture over the school's gate for it.

we spent a few days shopping for the project: hardware stores, electrical stores, fabric, lighting, bamboo, nicknacks.

This is a traditional Kerala house- shady and low-lying with an elegant shingled roof.

Foraging for materials for the project, we meet this guy who grows Bonzai trees.

As soon as I get there, I realize there is some politics going on in the institution concerning my presence there. Forms must be signed, strategies are taken. Here is Anil and me with the hard-won signed form that allowed us to start on Random Randal.

A store that sells things salvaged from ships.

The college is in Tripunithura which was once the seat of the royal family of Cochin. This art school was originally built by the royals to train their court musicians. A year ago they got this fancy new building.

We arrive at RLV college, and finally I meet Anil Dayanand, my penpal for the last 4 years and the artist who invited me to do a project in Kerala.

Fort Kochi's Chinese fishing nets.

little picture shop where you pick up your alter-images: Kirshna, Shiva, Ganesh, Gandhi and all the rest. The man had been running this shop since 1964 and it looked as if he was selling some of his original merchandise.

Anti drug sign in Malayalam: (a palindrome)

a shop

I found the workers relaxing in the shade under the red flag.

a little trash area- one of the most common sites in India. But you won;t find useful junk here like on New York streets.

Christmas stars at an old Portuguese church in Fort Kochi. These paper stars were everywhere in Kerala (all Keralites give a now to Christmas) and amazingly, each one we saw was different.